The Captain and The Mascot
by realzacrinaldo
Summary: Gritty and Claude have a late night, this is the next day. CH 2 It gets dramatic


The Captain and The Mascot

The morning sunlight floating through the window outlines Claude's muscular body. Curly orange hairs glisten in the light. Holding his hockey stick shaped spatula in his left hand, Claude shakes the skillet and flips a grilled cheese to toast the other side with his right. Grilled cheeses are his signature dish, he is an expert at preparing ooey gooey toasted goodness. Footsteps creak from down the hall and a smirk creeps onto Claude's face as he presses the spatula against the sandwich and the skillet hisses. Gritty stumbles into the kitchen bellybutton first, eyes rolling around. He approaches Claude and gingerly wraps him in a warm embrace, sensually nuzzling his neck.

Claude uses the spatula to flip the now finished sandwich up into the air. He sauces it like he's known for and after flipping a few times through the air it lands directly in Gritty's gaping maw. With a loud gulp, the grilled cheese disappears into the depths of Gritty, who then eyes a plate stacked 10 high. Gritty squeaks in happiness and Claude turns to him and says, "Oh I know you're hungry, Grits, we burned a LOT of calories last night." Gritty picks up the plate and dumps all 10 sandwiches and the plate into his mouth, swallows without chewing, and gives Claude a squeeze on the ass. "Ready already?!" Claude asks surprised, "I need to hydrate you hairy beast! There's a game tonight." Gritty says nothing, slapping bread then cheese then more bread into the still hot pan in Claude's hand. Claude puts the pan back on the stove as Gritty walks over to the refrigerator. He picks up an icy can of Natty Lite in his furry hands, cracks the seal and pours the whole can into his wide open mouth. Gritty baby birds the beer to Claude as he cooks the 12th grilled cheese of the morning. "Thank you, Grits, you know me so well," Claude coos. Gritty gropes and squeezes Claude's ass as he lifts the captain up and carries him back down the hallway towards the bedroom. The door closes.

Quiet squeaks and grunts muffled by thick walls can be heard just outside the house. A harsh, acrid smell starts to fill the air. Smoke fills the kitchen as a grilled cheese turns to charcoal. The Captain and the Mascot don't even notice, all they can smell is eachother's musk. Gritty's fur mattes up and sweat beads on Claude's limber strong body. Their bodies contort together as if they are trying to physically merge with each other. "Right hand, red" Claude reads off the spinner as he tries to maneuver around Gritty's massive belly, just barely reaching it with the tip of his pinky. Gritty spins the arrow to see where his next limb must be placed. "Bellybutton, Yellow" Claude reads for him. Gritty tries to twist himself around to get throbbing purple bellybutton down on the Twister mat. His arms and legs begin to buckle, he can barely hold himself up, let alone rotate around Claude. Just when he thinks he cannot possibly hold on any longer, his soft fur begins to tickle the captain's nips. Claude lefts out a soft sigh followed by a giggle. The more Gritty tries and twists, the better the softness feels. Claude loses himself to the soft caress of the fur on his nips and falls, bringing the off-balance Gritty down on top of him in a heap. They look at each other panting, eyes filled with pure desire as they lay atop each other. "Wanna go again?" Claude asks. "Squeak, Squeak" chirps Gritty.

Now that their focus on each other and the game had been broken, Claude notices the faint scent of smoke. ""Oh NO! The GRILLED CHEESE" Claude shouts. In a flash, Gritty is off of him and ripping open the door to the bedroom, his adrenaline overcoming him, he tears the door off its hinges. Thick black smoke pours into the room filling the space above them. Gritty's protective instincts kick in and he tries to run towards the now ablaze kitchen to put out the fire. Being so tall, he inhales a lot of smoke and collapses in the hallway. Claude can still breathe just fine, he's still on the ground below the smoke. He hears a loud thud and the house shakes, Claude immediately senses something is wrong. "Grits?" he calls, "Gritty, Are you OK?!" No response. Claude crawls out to the hallway and sees his friend collapsed on the floor. He picks Gritty's leg up over his shoulder and begins dragging the beast towards the door. They reach the exit of the house, Gritty still KO'd and Claude panting raggedly, his lungs burning. Claude pushes open the front door, drags Gritty onto the porch and then rolls him down the stairs, away from the fire and to safety.

Chapter 2

Panting wildly from dragging the behemoth that is Gritty, Claude drops to his knees beside his friend. He begins CPR, yelling for help while he is doing compressions. Neighbors appear on their porches, coming out to see all the commotion going on and a good Samaritan calls 911. Gritty coughs as thick black smoke rises above Claude's house and G breathes a sigh of relief seeing Gritty's big googly eyes opening. As he sighs, the flames roar and ignite the roof of the house. Sirens grow louder in the distance as the heat from the blaze radiates to Claude and Gritty. The flames lick the sky as the fire envelops the entire structure. Police, firemen, medics, and reporters all arrive at the same time and everyone rushes to work. The ambulance crew begins working on the captain and the mascot as the police set up a protective perimeter to give the fireman room to work and keep people from getting too close to the blaze. They get Gritty on a double-wide stretcher and load him into the ambulance. A blanket covered Claude insists on riding to the hospital in the back of the ambulance with Gritty.

On the drive, he tells the medics what little he knows about Gritty's medical history. Naturally, he doesn't know much, Gritty is a mysterious mystical being. Gritty squeaks in acknowledgement when Claude's facts are accurate and feverishly squeaks if Claude gets things wrong. They arrive at the hospital where the doctors realize Gritty has bigger problems than just smoke inhalation. He has a severe cup deficiency, without drinking out of Lord Stanley's cup he will die within a year. The doctors had never seen a case like this before, the Maple Leafs have been in a cup drought for over 51 years and they're still healthy. Claude is devastated. He fears losing his friend, his mascot, his lover but hope is not gone, Claude knows that he can help save Gritty.

Opening Night 2019-20 Season

At his locker stall, Claude laces up his skates. He looks around the room at his teammates all in various states of dress, each preparing for puck drop in their own way. Carter Hart is doing hand/eye coordination exercises, Coots is practicing his stickhandling, TK and Patrick are sharing headphones listening to their pregame pump up playlist. Morin and Hagg are headbutting each other and Ghost is practicing his serious face. Claude stands up and steps forward till he is right in front of the Flyers crest emblazoned on the floor. Ivan Provorov notices G preparing to give a speech and loudly clears his throat to get everyone's attention. The room quiets as players stop talking. "So, boys, we're all ready for this year right?" G starts. A few loud taps echo through the room as the players tap their sticks in agreement. "This year is gonna be different than every other season you boys have ever played. We NEED to win. We need to WIN EVERY GAME and we aren't just playing for us, someone needs us." Claude looks around at his comrades, they don't know about the events of this morning yet. "Our beloved Gritty is experiencing a life threatening cup deficiency. Luckily, the doctors found it early they gave us a fighting chance to save our boy."

"What's this all mean, G?" TK asks, "Life threatening sounds scary is Gritty going to be ok? He's been giving me agitation lessons."

"Well, Teeks, from what they've told me if we don't bring home the cup this year, Gritty may not live till next season."

The room goes so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Glancing around the room again, Claude sees looks of despair on the faces of all his brothers. Before he can speak again, the faces begin to change. As the players accept the circumstances thrust upon them, their despair begins to turn to determination.

"We can't focus on what's at stake, it'll be too much of a distraction. 30 other teams want what we want. 30 other teams have the same goal we do. But we have something they don't. A real reason to fight for it. A real hunger for it. It is ours and we're going to take it." Claude's volume and intensity are increasing with every word now and the rest of the team is hanging on to their leader's every word. "We're going to take it one game at a time. One shift at a time even. Every single one of us is going to go out there and put it all on the line. Blood, Sweat, Tears, elbow grease, whatever it takes, we're going to give it our all. We're going to go out there and beat everyone. We'll beat them physically," Claude looks at Morin and Hagg then moves his gaze to Jake, TK and Patrick, "We're going to beat them to the puck, we're going to beat them on the boards, and we're going to put the puck in the net and beat them on the scoreboard too."

Claude is almost yelling now, "People are going to fear us, they're going to hate us, and that's only going to feed us to go harder. We're gonna take this shit all the way, and we're gonna do it for Gritty! LET'S FUCKIN GO, BOYS" A roar of agreement from the team signals time to take the ice and they file out of the locker room to the bench.


End file.
